REGIONAL DIRECTOR, EMPLOYEE'S STATE INSURANCE CORPORATION vs HIGH LAND COFFEE WORKS OF P.F.X. SALDANHA AND SONS ANDANR

The Supreme Court held that the definition of 'seasonal factory' under Section 2(12) of the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948, was intended to be enlarged by the amendment in Act 44 of 1966, which includes factories operating for not more than seven months a year. The Court dismissed the appeal by the Regional Director of the State Employees Corporation, affirming that the respondents' factories remained exempt from the Act as seasonal factories. The judgment emphasized that the amendment aimed to broaden the definition rather than restrict it, thus maintaining the exclusion of the respondents' factories from the Act's provisions.